We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but my mom was really into sweet traditions. Our favorite (I have two younger sisters) was cookie making. Now among the three of us we have eleven (soon to be twelve) kids. We do a cousin day close to Christmas where they all decorate cookies, do some sort of service project and then do something fun like a bounce place. That is their Christmas gift to and from their cousins.

My kids also love to look at the lights. They've always rated them: first place, most creative, sheer volume, etc. A couple years ago they asked if the could actually hand out prizes. So now they make prize ribbons, and we sometimes include a little gift card to a local coffee shop or something. A day or two before Christmas they leave the prize on the front door. It's my favorite tradition!

This is such a cute thread! I have different traditions on both sides of my family, Dad's house and then Mom's house. But we all agree on one, very important tradition: Sausage Balls! When I went veg, I started making my own version and now the whole family only eats the vegan ones. Ha! We make them on Christmas Eve and freeze them, then pop them in the oven as soon as we all wake up and eat them while we open presents. My husband and I carry on the tradition at our house and I love it! It's the one tradition that has evolved and still continues to delight me!

We're entirely non-religious and my husband's family are Jehovah's Witnesses (so no Christmas)... So we have our own traditions which have somehow arisen over the years.

First we have the Advent Moose. Years ago my mum bought a cloth advent calendar for the boys, when it arrived it was a huge reindeer! We called it the Advent Moose and since then I've put a tiny present for each of the kids in the pockets every day from the first of December till Christmas Eve. I fondly imagine my sons sayin incredulously to a friend one day; "what? You didn't have the Advent Moose?!". We even have a song! One of the gifts is always stuff to make a new decoration for the twigs...

We start the festivities with 'Twigs Day' which is whenever the family arive to stay, or about three days before Christmas. We get all bundled up and go to a forest to collect fallen branches. We put them in a pot and decorate them with lights etc. They look lovely and they have many environmental and practical advantages over a fir tree.

We have stockings before breakfast, posh breakfast with Buck's Fizz, then the other gifts by the twigs. Main meal in the afternoon.

The day after Boxing Day is the second Twigs Day, we take down the twigs, pack away the decorations and the Advent Moose, and burn the twigs in the fire place. We toast them with mulled wine or apple juice.

My family is moderately large (I'm the eldest of four boys... men now, mostly), and we kind of absorb people into our family quite readily. Usually, it's me, my three brothers, my mother and my stepfather but optional extras include my (half-)brother's dad, my other brother's fiancée, my boyfriend (when his parents aren't in Hong Kong for Christmas they eat their big meal on Christmas Eve, so we get two Christmas dinners as we also go to my mum's) and any other waifs and strays we accumulate. Depending on who's where, there's a minimum of five and a maximum of... eight? Nine?

We eat a fairly traditional roast dinner, with nutroast and turkey and several kinds of stuffing etc. We always have brussels sprouts even though me and my mother are the only ones that like them. Last year we had ones from my garden, but I never got round to planting them this year. Sad times. They were the best I'd ever had... kind of sweet and with just the right amount of bitterness.

crepe! Last year I made a Christmas cake... It weighed a ton and looked like a giant pork pie because roll-out icing is apparently a forking bisque to use. I should make this year's soon otherwise I won't have time to feed it enough booze (traditional English Christmas cakes keep for years because they are about 50% alcohol)!

We always play "consequences" after dinner. It's a game when you write things down following a fomula and then fold the paper and the next person writes the next bit so it makes a silly little story. Saucy Superman met moist and muddy Angelina Jolie on a trampoline in Leicester Square, he said to her "I love your face", she said to him "Ooh, matron!", he gave her a red rose, she gave him leprosy, the consequence was they sought world domination and the world said "Huzzah!" etc and it usually end up with our aunts falling in love with my mother's cats and then inventing time machines or whatever. Good times. My mother can't drink alcohol, but boy does she encourage it in others, so half of us end up hammered.

On Boxing Day we usually eat again at my stepfather's family, who live two doors down (which is how they met), and it's traditionally something really un-Christmassy like pasta bake. His sister and her partner have two kids, so I get to sit on the floor and play Lego all afternoon.

_________________Moon - "This is the best recipe in the history of recipes forever."

"crepe! Last year I made a Christmas cake... It weighed a ton and looked like a giant pork pie because roll-out icing is apparently a forking bisque to use. I should make this year's soon otherwise I won't have time to feed it enough booze (traditional English Christmas cakes keep for years because they are about 50% alcohol)!"

Stir it up Sunday is the 25th, that's the traditional time to make the cake and pudding... What recipe do you use?

I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family so Christmases were always a reflection of that, and as such, not conducive to fond memories. However, in my 20s, my 9-year-old nephew learned to play the accordion, and decided it would be great fun to bring along on Christmas eve. That little sweetheart started a wonderful tradition where we all got together for a few hours to sing Christmas carols on Christmas eve. The alcoholics were still drinking, the druggers were still stoned, and the drama queens still found issues, but we still all sat around belting out "Silver Bells" and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" and the favourite of my nephew and me: "We wish you a Merry Christmas" (especially the "figging pudding" verse). For a few hours my family made connections and shared some good times. That was the best Christmas tradition my family ever had.

Fast forward a decade or so and the family has broken apart, the parents have died, and almost none of the family are still talking to each other. On Christmas eve, my phone rings. I answer it, there's silence, and I'm about to hang up, when I hear, "One, two, three . . . " and then the sound of my nephew's accordion and a group of people singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas." I listened to the whole song (including my nephew's solo on "figgy pudding") with tears running down my face. My darling nephew had gathered together a group of his friends, explained our tradition, and, from 3,000 miles away, called me to share Christmas eve.

Fast forward a decade or so and the family has broken apart, the parents have died, and almost none of the family are still talking to each other. On Christmas eve, my phone rings. I answer it, there's silence, and I'm about to hang up, when I hear, "One, two, three . . . " and then the sound of my nephew's accordion and a group of people singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas." I listened to the whole song (including my nephew's solo on "figgy pudding") with tears running down my face. My darling nephew had gathered together a group of his friends, explained our tradition, and, from 3,000 miles away, called me to share Christmas eve.

Christmas always meant special food. My mom and I would make lots of different cookies and dinner was always a special soup and meal that was only served at Christmas. Plus we always got a real tree and decorated it together. Now that I'm married and not living at home, I still make cookies with my mom. There are also the Christmas movies that my mom and I still watch together. We get together for It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott version).

I celebrate a traditional Jew Christmas...with Chinese food and a movie.

This is our tradition when we're not with the extended family who actually celebrates.

But I want to live vicariously through you. I read once about a family who opens one gift on Christmas Eve, and it's always a new pair of pajamas to wear that night. It always sounded like a nice cozy tradition to me.

I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family so Christmases were always a reflection of that, and as such, not conducive to fond memories. However, in my 20s, my 9-year-old nephew learned to play the accordion, and decided it would be great fun to bring along on Christmas eve. That little sweetheart started a wonderful tradition where we all got together for a few hours to sing Christmas carols on Christmas eve. The alcoholics were still drinking, the druggers were still stoned, and the drama queens still found issues, but we still all sat around belting out "Silver Bells" and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" and the favourite of my nephew and me: "We wish you a Merry Christmas" (especially the "figging pudding" verse). For a few hours my family made connections and shared some good times. That was the best Christmas tradition my family ever had.

Fast forward a decade or so and the family has broken apart, the parents have died, and almost none of the family are still talking to each other. On Christmas eve, my phone rings. I answer it, there's silence, and I'm about to hang up, when I hear, "One, two, three . . . " and then the sound of my nephew's accordion and a group of people singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas." I listened to the whole song (including my nephew's solo on "figgy pudding") with tears running down my face. My darling nephew had gathered together a group of his friends, explained our tradition, and, from 3,000 miles away, called me to share Christmas eve.

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Aw, this made me so warm and fuzzy. Your nephew is awesome.

_________________"One time I meant to send a potential employer a resume, but I accidentally sent them a bucket of puke!

He is one of the best people I know. It's so great to see him grow up, start his own family, and create Christmas traditions with his children. Which reminds me, I have to start thinking about making Christmas cake, as he's asked me to carry on the home baking tradition started by one of my sisters.

We set our television to TBS (I think that's right) for the 24 hour Christmas Story marathon. My hubby hates it but gets mesmerized by it every year. It is with this in the background that we finish up our festivities, tree, wrapping, etc. Then we visit family and I count how many people ask me "what DO you eat???" before the night is over. :) I love my family.

And some things that my family did (like putting out milk and cookies for Santa) are different from what my partner's family did (putting out mince pies and port for Father Christmas), so I feel like we have to choose whose tradition to follow.

You know how you decide this? What does "santa" want to drink?

I mean, really how hard is it, wine or soymilk ? ;-)

MY fave Christmas memories are the foods and the decorations. I love the lights! And I also love the smell of a real tree. When I was really young we'd go way out to a cut-it-yourself farm, they'd take you on a sleigh ride and have a barn with a wood stove and cocoa and stuff and it was the awesomest. My parents got a bit lazy about that tradition by the time we moved to the 'burbs and so my dad planted spruce seedlings along the perimeter of our yard. Our yard was fairly well shaded, and he practiced no arborculture, so these were the saddest charlie brown trees ever, but hey! We grew our own Christmas trees! They were very sparsely branched and it was a game to put the best face forward. Also, there was a lot of room for decorations. I was a bit sad when my parents got a fake one.

Seriously, whenever I end up with some land, I am growing some kinda Christmas tree (but for now, I'm pretty happy to be living in Fraser Fir country, I f-ing love those. I wonder if I could find an itty bitty one for my apt, or at least a wreath).

We usually had a big family get together on Christmas Eve @ our house, and we'd usually get to someone else's house the next day too, but not always. My favorite foods were also utilized on Thanksgiving, rutabaga and homemade applesauce. We have a wine sauce my parents make for the meat that is pretty much the same as Isa's wine-mustard sauce and so my mom makes it vegan for me to put over our wild-rice mix.

A few years back I had to work the day before and the day after xmas (with family 9hrs away) AND on top of that I was sick, so I celebrated by getting a wreath and making a ton of dumplings, using gyoza wrappers, I made gyoza, some thai inspired curry dumplings and some potato-onion pierogies. omnom fingerfoods for alone day. At least I had World of Warcraft that holiday.

_________________Evolved a vascular system, so I went from bryophyte to lycophyte.

We always made 3 kinds of Christmas cookies. Gingerbread men, sugar cookies (cut with xmas cookie cutters and sprinkled with red and green sugar) and tollhouse cookies. Decorating the gingerbread men and cutting out the sugar cookies was a lot of fun when I was little. Okay, it's still a lot of fun. I usually make them with my friend every year now.

Decorating the tree was a big deal, with xmas carols playing. Same thing with setting up out little xmas village. I had my picture taken with Santa every year, and my mom put them all into a special album. We also went to my hometown's big xmas parade every year (I still make my mom take me. Every year, she asks if she can sit this one out, and I say, "No way! It's a tradition!"

I would always put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots and water for the reindeer. In the morning, the cookies and milk would be gone, and all that would be left of the carrots was the ends, which would have toothmarks on them from the reindeer (now I picture my poor mother at 1 in the morning, gnawing on an old, unpeeled carrot)! There would always be a letter left from Santa, thanking me for the cookies, and telling me he hoped I liked my presents.

After home presents were opened, we would go to my grandparents' house. There would be more presents, but the best part was the stockings. I have no idea how it got started, but the stockings at my grandparents' house were always filled with jokes. It would be like the weirdest stuff you could find at your local crappy thrift store, and sometimes actual joke-type stuff (last year, my mom got underwear for squirrels in her stocking). All throughout the year, we would find stuff and say "That would be perfect for so-and-so's stocking!" Then on christmas day, we would open our stockings one by one, while everyone else watched and laughed at the things you received. (The most awkward xmas was the one where my uncle invited us all to have xmas at his new house, and neglected to tell us that his wife's entire family would be there. We had to sit in the living room and open our ridiculous stockings, while my aunt's family sat in the kitchen and stared at us, silently. Fun times.)

I LOVE reading this thread and learning about how the holidays is celebrated (mainly) in the US. It's quite different from how it's commonly done here in Sweden!

I used to have an advent calendar that my grandmother had made me, which looked like a train and a lot of tomtar (scandinavian elfs) in it. Every night, my mother hung a small gift on it for me to open in the morning. Fun! I also had a lot of paper ones and chocolate ones.

December 13th, it's st Lucia day, celebrated by kids (mostly) dressing up like different things and singing. We eat Lucia buns (saffron buns). I don't really celebrate this anymore but it's nice to watch the national Lucia celebration in the morning.

We celebrate on Christmas Eve in Sweden (makes no sense?) so the day before, 23, we always made the food for Christmas and tasted a little bit of everything for dinner. On the 24th, we woke up early, opened our stockings and had rice pudding for breakfast. Then we hung around, read the magazine that we would get in our stocking. At lunch time, we went to my grandmother for the big celebration. First there would be glögg (mulled wine) and gingerbread cookies. After that, the national tv broadcast with disney short movies would air and we would watch it (like everyone else...) and after that we would eat traditional christmas dinner which consists of a big buffet of things. Then santa would come with presents and we would open them and eat candy and cookies and coffee and then we'd take the bus home and be tired.

Now, I don't really celebrate with my family that often (I'm 23). I have bean abroad for Christmas two years and this year I'll be in my new hometown celebrating with my partner and his mother's family. I really want to make some fun traditions for us, not so sure he'd care though, but he'll have to go along with it. The pajama idea sounds like so much fun! I will buy myself a new one this year!

My sister used to always get fisticuffs mad whenever we were putting up the Christmas tree. She always had a hairtrigger temper and used to be super duper critical about the tree that everything's got to hang right, the garland's got to be straight, the tinsel evenly divvied and scattered over the boughs and and yaddayadda. Basically, she ruined any tree-trimming party. She would inevitably, at some point, devolve into a punching frustration over some trivial detail about the tree so I always used to have to go toe-to-toe with her at some point during the decorating process to defend myself. We laugh nowadays that that was once a Christmas tradition, our yearly fistfight while putting up the Christmas tree. THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

I think this is my favorite thread I have ever started. I have a huge list of stuff I want to do this year now, and I have LOVED reading about everyone's traditions and memories! I'm starting to get really excited for Christmas now!

We keep things simple. We do presents Christmas Eve and have a lovely dinner of potato leek soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and some nice wine. Then oodles of pecan tarts.

It's all warm, comforting, and low key. We've done this for about the past 10 yrs and wouldn't change a thing. Then we all retreat to our corners of the sofas to read the books we got (we all always give and get books).

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

I was back in my home town last week and because of this thread, I decided to help my mum put up her Christmas tree. We laughed at how forking ugly it is, and I texted my brother pictures of the hideous ornaments he made (including his infamous toilet paper roll angel) with captions like 'why do you hate us?' and 'you ruin everything'. Then we went out to start some Christmas shopping and mocked all the nicely decorated trees in the shop windows. And then after I left, Mum texted me photos of this horrible wreath I made from plastic bags when I was like six, which she'd dragged out and hung above the fireplace. I enjoy our completely tasteless Christmases.

I was back in my home town last week and because of this thread, I decided to help my mum put up her Christmas tree. We laughed at how forking ugly it is, and I texted my brother pictures of the hideous ornaments he made (including his infamous toilet paper roll angel) with captions like 'why do you hate us?' and 'you ruin everything'. Then we went out to start some Christmas shopping and mocked all the nicely decorated trees in the shop windows. And then after I left, Mum texted me photos of this horrible wreath I made from plastic bags when I was like six, which she'd dragged out and hung above the fireplace. I enjoy our completely tasteless Christmases.